Many of you already know me or are familiar with the car but I thought I would do my best to share what has gone into our Camaro throughout the past year to take it from the car that was a basic driver with bolt on parts to the beast it is today.
Just a quick note, for the most current information on our racing and the car make sure to follow me on instagram @jakerozelle and on Facebook! You can also check out my website: http://jakerozelle12.wix.com/jakerozelleracing
To start my name is Jake Rozelle, I grew up racing motorcycles off road in Southern California with my dad Roy and this year switched over to primarily competing in cars, focusing on the USCA series while also doing Goodguys and countless local autocrosses. My dad bought this 1969 Camaro RS for his 40th Birthday 10 years ago with the white paint and the black stripes already on it. I was only 10 years old at the time.
Throughout the first 9 years of ownership we did purely bolt on mods, outfitting the car with front Global West tubular control arms and their rear leaf springs. We also upgraded the brakes with c5 corvette components and my dad had a 536hp 400ci gm bow tie block small block built that found its way into the car. The car rode on American Racing hopster wheels with 245/18 front tires and 275/18 rear tires with Falken rubber. We began autocrossing the car like this and that is where it all started.
After deciding to get more involved in driving, we turned to Cris at JCG Restorations and Customs. We put together a plan to simply mini tub the car and add the DSE four link which would allow us to run a 315 rear tire. Since new wheels were in order, we turned to Forgeline and ordered their GA3R three piece wheels in a brushed finish center with polished lips.
Since the rear end was coming out we upgraded to a Ford 9 inch with a Speedway full floater system. My dad LOVES parking brakes, something Cris and I always joke about but it was important to him that this car has one so it does. To do so took a little creativity since we were using C6 Corvette Z06 brakes from Kore3. However with a little thinking from us, Cris, and Tobin at Kore 3 this car has an amazing stock-style parking brake and everyone is happy! The rear end is also equipped with a gear driven pump to an oil cooler for extended track sessions.
At this point in the story is where things started getting a bit out of control. Cris is a darned good salesman and convinced my dad that adding The Detroit speed hydroformed subframe would be the ‘right’ way to build the car to make it ‘balanced.’ Of course he was right so out came the old and in with the new. He also smoothed the firewall while he was at it.
I don’t think I mentioned it already but the car already had a tremec t56 magnum that had been installed a few years earlier.
With the new wheels(Forgeline GA3R), wider tires front and rear (275/315) and the Detroit Speed Subframe and quadralink the Car went back together and was ready for its first test which is where I will leave it for tonight. I hope you all enjoyed it and I will continue to post more if there’s interest!
Welcome to Lat-G Jake... Have followed along with your adventure from afar and yes...please keep sharing the details of the build of the Camaro and your plans for the new year.
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Lance
1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car